File:000138-asteroid_shape_model_(138)_Tolosa.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Picture of the Day · NASA
Pathfinder on Mars
2026-07-04
On July 4th, 1997, using its own array of fireworks, a parachute, and a cocoon of airbags, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft bounced like a giant beach ball at least 15 times before it came to rest on the surface of Mars at 10:07 AM Pacific Daylight Time. After its then novel airbag-assisted landing sequence was completed, Pathfinder transmitted this color mosaic to mission operators on Earth. In the scene from another world, the Mars Sojourner robot rover is visible in the foreground, crouched on top of the unfolded Pathfinder. About the size of a large house cat, the six-wheeled, solar-powered Sojourner became the first successful Martian rover. Surrounding Pathfinder are deflated airbags and the rock-strewn terrain of the Ares Vallis floodplain. In the distance Martian hills appear against a dusty brownish sky. The Pathfinder lander was subsequently renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station.
via NASA APOD
Key facts
- Discovered by
- Henri Joseph Perrotin
- Discovery date
- 19 May 1874
- Pronunciation
- / t oʊ ˈ l oʊ s ə /
- Named after
- Toulouse (Tolōsa)
- Alternative designations
- A874 KA; 1909 SB
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 110.38 yr (40315 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.8463 AU (425.80 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.05145 AU (306.893 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.44887 AU (366.346 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.83 yr (1399.7 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 18.91 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 348.297 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 25.884 / day
- Inclination
- 3.2038°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 54.762°
- Argument of perihelion
- 260.825°
- Dimensions
- 51.86 ± 3.07 km , 45.50 ± 2.1 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Toulouse
- Followed by
- 139 Juewa
- Follows
- 137 Meliboea
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 52.905
- Orbital period
- 1401.689086388414
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Henri Joseph Anastase Perrotin
- site of astronomical discovery
- Toulouse Observatory
- provisional designation
- A874 KA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1874-05-19
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 3.198844168807222
- albedo
- 0.273
- Commons category
- 138 Tolosa
- rotation period
- 10.101
- absolute magnitude
- 9.02
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1618855793372204
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.451144098189412
- periapsis
- 2.05433921581501
- apoapsis
- 2.847948980563814
- longitude of ascending node
- 54.68758092988096
- argument of periapsis
- 261.1129824163847
- mean anomaly
- 142.2979101727429
- time of periapsis
- 2460446.451589708
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
138 Tolosa is a brightly coloured, stony background asteroid from the inner region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered by French astronomer Henri Joseph Perrotin on 19 May 1874, and named by the Latin and Occitan name ([tɔˈloːsa] and [tuˈluzɔ]) of the French city of Toulouse.
This object is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.45 AU with an eccentricity of 0.16 and an orbital period of 3.83 years. Its orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 3.2° relative to the plane of the ecliptic. Measurements of its diameter range from 46 to 52 km. It is spinning with a rotation period of 10.1 hours.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “138 Tolosa” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.